Composers: Curtis Bryant

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An Atlanta native, Curtis Bryant (b. 1949) earned his Master of Music Theory in 1980 from Georgia State University, studying composition with Charles Knox. Since 1983 Bryant's music has received live performances steadily and has been heard across North America and in Europe, Asia and Australia in concerts, music festivals and on radio and television broadcasts, including National Public Radio's Performance Today. Composing for virtually all media from chamber to vocal to orchestral, his music has been praised for being "immediately attractive and accessible, with an emphasis on beauty of sound, simplicity of means, and expression of feeling" (Atlanta Journal and Constitution). Bryant has also composed music for numerous television series and specials including the award winning Portrait of America series produced by Turner Broadcasting. He has garnered six Southern Regional Emmy Award nominations for original music and numerous ASCAP Awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.

Bryant's most recent major work is the opera, Zabette, based on a libretto by Mary R. Bullard, which received its premiere in 1999 by the Georgia State University School of Music, Department of Opera Studies, under the artistic direction of W. Dwight Coleman. The "Portrait Aria" from Zabette received its Carnegie Hall premiere in March, 2001 by soprano, Jeanne Brown, co-winner of the Center for Contemporary Opera International Opera Singers Competition at Weill Recital Hall. Other recent works by Bryant include The Laughing Monkeys of Gravity (2003), a song cycle for soprano and chamber ensemble set to a text by award winning poet Stephen Bluestone, Cantata for One Earth commissioned by the United Nations Association USA, Atlanta Chapter for the 50th Anniversary of the UN (1995), Letters from Jack (1994), commissioned by the contemporary chamber ensemble, Thamyris, Funfare (1993), commissioned by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for its summer pops concert series, and Dinosaurs: A Primeval Symphony (1991), commissioned by the Savannah Symphony Orchestra. The latter has also been performed by the Macon Symphony Orchestra and the Symphony of Oak Park and River Forest. Several of Bryant's compositions for middle school string orchestra are published by Neil A. Kjos Music Company in San Diego. His Sonata for Cello and Piano is featured on the compact disc Music by Southern Composers recorded on the Gasparo Label by acclaimed performing artists Dorothy and Cary Lewis. Among Bryant's recent television projects are original theme and background music for public television specials, Georgia on My Mind, Eugenia Price's South, Lost Atlanta: The Way We Were, and The Great Dinosaurs of China produced by Georgia Public Television. Exploring Two Frontiers: The Neurolab Space Shuttle produced by Atlanta Public Television in coordination with NASA and Morehouse School of Medicine, received broadcasts nationwide on the Public Television Network. Bryant provided original music for a national public service advertisement campaign for the Arthritis Foundation, produced by SRW Media Group of Atlanta, which won the Bronze Award at the Fifth Annual World Fest - Charleston International Film Festival, 1997.

Curtis Bryant is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), the Southeastern Composer's League (SCL), the American Composers Forum (ACF), and the American Music Center (AMC). He also has served as secretary of The Atlanta Producer's Association (TAPA). Bryant has served as adjudicator for numerous arts panels and organizations including the Georgia Council for the Arts and the Georgia Music Teacher's Association. He has received the rare honor of two All-Curtis Bryant Concerts at the Piccolo Spoleto USA Music Festival (1985) and on the Mostly Chamber Music concert series (1990). Bryant's music has also been performed in the Atlanta Arts Festival, the Red Lodge Music Festival, the University of Wisconsin-Platteville Festival and the Harid Conservatory "Music of the South" Program. He has served as part-time instructor at Georgia Perimeter College, Clayton College and State University and Tri-Cities High School and currently teaches at Georgia State University School of Music. Bryant lives in the Atlanta area with his wife, Nancy, and son, Colman.

Compositions published by Lux Nova Press • Composer's Website